Wednesday, July 06, 2016

Vita, Virginia & You

A lyrical period drama about the passionate love between two women is coming to the big screen. I know, I know – you already saw “Carol.” But this is “Vita & Virginia,” the long-gestating chronicle of the real-life romance between literary giants Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf.

The two writers met in 1922 and started a relationship that lasted until Woolf’s death in 1941. Woolf famously wrote the “Orlando” as a tribute to Vita, who inspired the fantastical century-spanning, gender-bending novel.

The movie (which has not been cast yet) is based on the 1992 play by actress and writer Eileen Atkins. It should be noted that Atkins wrote the screenplay for “Mrs. Dalloway,” the 1997 film based on the Woolf novel. That film features a more-than-suggested attraction between the title character in her youth and her best friend, Sally (played by none other than Lena Headey). You see, all roads really do lead back to lesbianism and/or Lena Headey.

Speaking of lesbianism, Chanya Button has been tapped to direct “Vita & Virginia.” And Chanya’s feature film debut from last year (“Burn Burn Burn”) included a lesbian character.

So, as I was saying. All roads lead back to lesbianism. And since this film hasn’t been cast yet, may I suggest Lena Headey as either Vita or Virginia. What? We all know Cersei won’t be on the Iron Throne forever.

4 comments:

This is brilliant news , thank you. I read all of Virginia's books in my faraway youth and often returns to them. If you can please watch the BBC series 'Portrait of a Marriage' - the story of Vita written by her son which was made into the tv series.

I'm torn about this. As many were at the time, Woolf (even though married to a Jew!) and Sackville-West were both raging anti-Semites, and racists. Their whole clique matched that description. So I hope that's dealt with honestly and critically in the film.